


Daily Lives of High School Girls

by mageofpie



Category: Azumanga Daioh
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Gen, One Shot Collection, i never finished it tbh, just random stuff, rarepair, reposting from ff.net
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-08
Updated: 2016-06-08
Packaged: 2018-07-13 20:54:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7136705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mageofpie/pseuds/mageofpie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of Azumanga Daioh one shots.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Disney Trip (Sakaki/Yomi)

“W-What?” Sakaki blinked at her parents and stared at them with dawning realisation.

Her father grinned and nodded eagerly while her mother smiled.

“Yep, we’re finally going to Disney!” Her father’s choppy Japanese finally sunk in and Sakaki felt complete and utter joy envelop her. Her mouth flapped and words seemed to refuse to form on her tongue.

She had been asking to go to Disney World since she was a child, but seeing as though both of her parents worked full time and didn’t make that much they had never had the chance to. Sakaki knew that her family’s position was rough and so hadn’t press the matter since she was old enough to understand.

“Two whole weeks?” She squeaked.

“We’ll be spending one week at Disney, and for the next we’ve rented a car so we can go to Universal Studios, too.” Her mother’s soft voice made Sakaki snap her head towards her.

She finally set her chopsticks down and rung her hands with nervous energy, a smile bubbling on her lips, “Oh, man… mom, dad, thank you so much.” Not really knowing what else to say, Sakaki got up and nearly skipped over to her parents and hugged them both.

Her father smacked her back and laughed while her mother rubbed circles on it, trying to calm her overwhelmed daughter down.

“There’s something else, too.”

Sakaki pulled back from the hug and raised an eyebrow up at her dad questioningly.

“Your mother and I thought that… well…” He trailed off and glanced at her mother out of the corner of his eye.

“We thought it would be a good idea to buy an extra ticket so you could bring one of your friends.” She cut in. Sakaki blinked again.

“One?”

“W-We know, but it’s just so expensive to bring all 5 of them.”

“I-I know! I understand, mom, its fine, really,” Sakaki waved her hand dismissively, “I know it’s expensive, this is really incredible, but… it’s going to be hard to pick one of them…” The last part was mostly to herself and Sakaki tapped her chin in thought, glancing off to the side and furrowing her eyebrows.

“We know, sweetie.” Her mother stroked her hair and smiled warmly while Sakaki smiled back. She turned back to her empty bowl at the table and picked it up, moving to put it in the sink and start doing the dishes before feeling her father’s hand on her elbow.

“ _Oh, don’t worry about it, kiddo, I’ll do the dishes tonight. You just go and do your homework and think on who you’re gonna bring_.” He spoke in English, looking too tired to translate his thoughts into Japanese. Sakaki rolled her eyes but smiled anyway.

“ _Thanks, dad…_ ” She passed him her bowl and kissed him on the cheek, doing the same to her mother before turning to go upstairs, “Goodnight, I love you.” She called over her shoulder and received a chorus of the same thing back.

Turning and furrowing her eyebrows again, Sakaki made the trip up the stairs and to her room, nibbling on her lip in thought.

* * *

Sakaki stood outside her homeroom with the extra ticket clutched in front of her, both hands shaking with nerves. She had spent long, hard days trying to figure out which of her friends she was going to ask to bring on her vacation. After narrowing her choices down and picking from her 5 best friends, Sakaki had felt that she made the right choice, and yet…

She heard the voices of her friend’s echo through the thin paper walls and glanced up. Sighing through the nose, she knew there was no point in putting it off anymore and straightened herself up, sliding the door open.

Her initial thought had been to bring Chiyo and at first it seemed like the perfect choice but the more she thought about it, the more she realised that wasn’t the case. She was pretty sure Chiyo’s parents wouldn’t appreciate someone they hadn’t met taking their young daughter on a two week trip to America. Sakaki really didn’t want to have Chiyo’s dad threaten her with chopping her head off again.

Tomo… Tomo was out of the question, to be quite honest. She didn’t have anything against the wildcat… okay, she did, but she didn’t really feel comfortable asking Tomo on a two week trip either. She could barely handle the girl’s energy for one school day, let alone for two weeks, non-stop. Plus, she wasn’t sure Tomo could handle the 15 hour plane ride from Japan to Florida.

Osaka. Osaka seemed like a decent enough option. Sakaki got along with her; they talked often about different things. But… sometimes the soft-spoken Osakan girl scared her. The way she would stare endlessly into the sky with those eyes, the way she would randomly start smiling at nothing and mutter words under her breath, the way she would stare at Sakaki’s chest sometimes and just sigh and look away into the clouds again. Yeah, no, no Osaka.

Next was Kagura. Kagura was her self-proclaimed rival and despite this, Sakaki still considered her one of her closer friends. They walked home together and talked. Or, Kagura would talk and Sakaki would listen. Mostly about sports and the new mountain bike she wanted to get. Kagura had nearly won the battle in Sakaki’s head but again, the more she thought about it, the more she knew it would be a bad idea. Kagura was loud and boisterous and scared away little kitties. That, and the fact that she hadn’t known Kagura for that long, less than a year. It would have made her feel weird to ask her to go on such a long trip after knowing each other for so little time.

That had left Yomi.

_Yomi…_

Sakaki hadn’t paid much attention to her until recently.

She hadn’t been doing so well in maths and the jump from first year to second really knocked the motivation out of the tall schoolgirl, but Yomi had apparently noticed and offered to tutor her. She had been apprehensive at first but after learning that Yomi had a passion for maths, something Sakaki still couldn’t wrap her head around, she had agreed for the bespectacled girl to teach her.

Their study sessions had gone from being only a weekly occurrence to every other day after realising that they liked each other’s company. Yomi had told her that Sakaki had this calm aura about her that put the shorter girl right at ease, as opposed to Tomo who set her teeth on edge. They began simply hanging out and watching movies together, Yomi providing her sarcastic running commentary on most of them. Needless to say they had grown much closer since the start of their second year.

However, what tipped the scales in Yomi’s favour the most was because of the Magical Land incident. It hadn’t been that long ago when the group of friends had decided to all plan the trip to the amusement park and Yomi had, unfortunately, fallen ill on the day. Sakaki had wanted to stay and visit her but had a bad feeling about leaving Chiyo in the care of the knuckleheads alone at an amusement park with plenty of hazards that could end the young girl’s life.

Guiltily, Sakaki had left Yomi behind and hadn’t been able to forgive herself since.

There was also… the _other_ thing…

“Yo, Sakaki!” Kagura’s voice pulled her from her thoughts and caused her to jump. Sakaki hadn’t realised she had wandered into the classroom yet, let alone so close to her regular group. They were all crowded around Osaka’s desk and Kagura was waving enthusiastically at her, grinning. She suddenly felt an arm drape across her shoulder and looked down to find Tomo grinning up at her. How did she get there so fast?

“Morning, musume!”

“Knock it off, Tomo, it wasn’t funny the first time.” Yomi yelled over, shaking her head in exasperation. All she got from Osaka was a dreamy smile and wave from her seat while Chiyo joined Kagura in her enthusiastic waving.

This was going to be awkward.

She shrugged Tomo’s arm off and walked towards the group, gulping.

“Hey, what’s that ya got there, Miss Sakaki?” Sakaki flinched and looked down at Osaka who was staring at the ticket in her hand with far too much concentration than was necessary.

“Ooh, is it a cheque? For me? Oh, Miss Sakaki, you shouldn’t have!” Tomo tried to snatch the paper out of her hand but Sakaki quickly held it above her head and out of the reach of any wildcats.

“It’s probably a transfer slip to another class so she can get away from you.” Yomi snapped, punching the whining girl in the arm. From behind her, Sakaki heard a yelp as Kaorin appeared beside her causing the others in her group to jump back at the suddenness of her appearance.

“W-What!? Miss Sakaki’s being transferred!?” The poor girl looked on the verge of tears as she gazed up at the tall girl. Sakaki suddenly felt like the whole class was watching her and clenched her fist around the ticket, crumpling it. Nervous sweat broke out on her neck and she shook her head quickly.

“N-No, I’m not-“

“Geeze, Kaorin, let Sakaki live her life! If she wants to transfer, she can transfer!” Tomo found her pep again and immediately began teasing the shaking girl.

“She’s not transferring, Tomo, damn, she literally just said she wasn’t!” Kagura rolled her eyes and Sakaki gave her a grateful look.

Tomo sighed and rolled her eyes back, tapping her foot impatiently, “Well, if it isn’t a cheque and it isn’t a transfer slip, then what else could it be?”

“Actually,” Chiyo raised her hand, “there are lots of things it could be like a letter or a receipt or-“

“Was I asking you?!”

The prodigy jumped as Tomo yelled at her and looked around, confused, “B-But you just said-!”

“Ah, whatever, those are the only _interesting_ things it could be.” Tomo pointed at the slip of paper accusingly and paused, “Unless… Unless it’s a _love letter!_ ”

Sakaki did a double take at Tomo and felt her face heat up. This reaction only seemed to fuel Tomo’s tirade as the wildcat girl suddenly grinned and started pointing at Sakaki’s bright red face, “It _is_ as love letter! Oh, man! Who’s it from? Unless you wrote it and you’re giving it to one of us!” Tomo went to snatch at the ticket again and almost knocked Kaorin over, who was too busy pouring over the possibilities of what a love letter from Sakaki would be like to care.

Sakaki held the ticket above her head again and put a determined look on her face, furrowing her eyebrows and pressing her lips together. It didn’t really work that well because she was still madly blushing but she had come in here with a goal and by god, she was going to reach it.

“It’s for Yomi.” She stated.

The girl in question blinked and her own face heated up as the rest of the group’s heads swivelled towards her, “W-What?”

Sakaki’s eyes widened in realisation, “I-It’s not a love letter…!”

“Oh.” Yomi sighed, her shoulders lowering slightly, but the tall girl noticed a hint of disappointment in her eyes which Sakaki immediately brushed off as a trick of the light.

Not really knowing what to say just yet, Sakaki simply shoved the crumpled piece of folded paper towards Yomi and looked down at the floor. By the way she was acting, anyone watching would surely think she _was_ giving her a love letter. The thought made Sakaki blush harder.

The _other_ reason she wanted to ask Yomi…

She didn’t know when it first started, but there came a point during one of their study session where Yomi was explaining one of the more complicated equations and Sakaki was trying to concentrate on what she was saying but was too busy staring at the other girl; the way the light from her desk lamp gleamed off her glasses, the soft curve of her jaw, the way her eyes lit up while she was talking about something she was passionate about, her lips moving. It was only after Yomi had looked up and asked her if she ‘got all of that’ that Sakaki realised what she was doing and felt her face heat up before nodding once. Yomi grinned at her and Sakaki felt her heart flutter.

She may or may not have developed a crush on Koyomi Mizuhara.

Sakaki felt the slip of paper be removed from her trembling hands and she quickly snapped them to her side. She looked up through her bangs and saw Yomi unfold the paper and read its contents with a raised eyebrow. She was silent for a few seconds which seemed to drag on for longer than it actually did and the rest of the girls waited to see what was on there.

Yomi looked up with something akin to anger in her eyes and Sakaki immediately felt confusion wash over her.

“Is this some kind of sick prank?” She spat and Sakaki felt herself freeze up before quickly trying to explain.

“No, of course not!” Apparently her raised voice was enough to encourage the rest of the class to start eavesdropping on the conversation. Sakaki glanced around and began nervously twiddling her thumbs, “Y-You see, I, uh… w-well…”

Sakaki sucked in a breath and squeezed her eyes shut, “My parents planned a trip for us to go to Disney for two weeks and they said I could bring one of you guys and I knew you were upset about not being able to come with us to Magical Land so I thought… t-that maybe you’d want to, uh, come w-with us?”

There was another silence where the news rested upon their group and anyone who was listening in on the situation. Yomi’s face suddenly turned neutral and the early morning sunlight gleamed off her glasses and made it impossible for Sakaki to see her eyes which really didn’t help right now.

“So… you’re serious?” Her voice was flat and Sakaki flinched before nodding once and humming in confirmation.

“That’s… That’s really cool of you, Sakaki.” Sakaki quickly glanced over to Kagura who was nodding in admiration and who gave her a thumbs up for encouragement. Sakaki smiled tightly and looked back over to the bespectacled girl in time to see her put the ticket down on Osaka’s desk with shaky hands, her eyes still covered and Sakaki prepared herself for humiliation.

Of course she’d say no! It was such a big thing to ask someone, especially someone she hadn’t even been that close friends with until the start of the year! Stupid, stupid Sakaki!

These thoughts, however, were prematurely cut off by a pair of arms wrapping around her waist and the figure they were attached to started jumping up and down and laughing. Sakaki quickly pinned the voice to Yomi and blinked in confusion. She heard the bespectacled girl begin squealing _thank you_ ’s into her shoulder and let out an awkward chuckle. She was more than surprised when her grip on Sakaki’s waist became almost vice-like as Yomi lifted Sakaki off the ground and spun her around. There were a few gasps of shock the rippled through the classroom at the sight and Sakaki blushed, lowing her head and hugging the ecstatic girl back as well as she could.

Once she had been put down, Yomi pulled back from the hug but kept her arms wrapped around Sakaki’s waist which made her heart stutter. She had never seen her so happy before. The smile on Yomi’s face threatened to split it in half and her glasses had fogged up somewhat from the tears that were welling up in her eyes, “Sakaki! Thank you! Oh, my god, I can’t say that enough!” Her voice cracked in happiness and the raven haired girl paused before letting a small smile grace her lips.

“You’re welcome…” Was all she could think to say.

“Disney… Freaking Disney World!” Yomi paused a moment herself as the thought ran through her mind again. She let go of Sakaki and tried to contain her excitement again by jumping and trying to contain her squeals of delight. At that moment, she couldn’t care less that their friends and classmates were watching her, she was just so damn happy. She covered her mouth with both hands and smiled at Sakaki through them, still shaking with her happiness.

“Disney…” By this point it was nothing more than an intense whisper and Sakaki let out a laugh.

“Yes, Disney. And we’re going to Universal Studios in the second week, too…” Sakaki trailed off at the look of awe that suddenly passed over Yomi’s face. She lowered her hands and grabbed Sakaki’s arms in a tight grip, but not tight enough for it to be uncomfortable.

“Universal… as in, Universal Studios with the new Harry Potter rides?” Her voice was shaking as much as she was and Sakaki nodded once before feeling herself be pulled into another bone crushing hug. Sometimes, Sakaki forgot just how strong Yomi was after all of the times she would beat up Tomo. She had burrowed her head in Sakaki’s chest and was trying to muffle her squeals. Over the shorter girl’s shoulder, Sakaki could see the rest of her friends and their class staring at the two with expressions varying from envy to shock to just flat out anger in the case of Kaorin.

“I’ve never seen Yomi this happy before…” Was Tomo’s not-so-quiet whisper to Kagura out of the corner of her mouth.

“Yeah, no kidding…” Kagura muttered back.

Yomi pulled back yet again and shocked Sakaki by grabbing her face between her hands and staring up into her eyes.

“Sakaki, I could fucking kiss you right now.”

Sakaki sputtered and froze up as did everyone else in the room at the admission. Yomi seemed to pause and think for a moment before shrugging, “Ah, what the hell.”

In an action almost too quick for Sakaki to register it, Yomi grabbed fistfuls of her uniform and dragged the tall schoolgirl down into a kiss. Sakaki wasn’t expecting that. She squeaked around the other girl’s mouth and suddenly felt her whole body explode into a blush. She _really_ wasn’t expecting that.

The gasp that rippled throughout the room seemed to bring Yomi back to earth and she pulled away from the kiss, patting Sakaki on the cheek twice almost teasingly before spinning on her heal and snatching the ticket off Osaka’s desk and waving it in Tomo’s face, letting out a triumphant yell of “HAH!”. Tomo was still trying to get over the fact that her best friend had kissed possibly the most popular girl in school without even batting an eyelid.

Meanwhile, still rooted to the floor, Sakaki stared at Yomi with eyes almost bugging out of her head and jaw flapping wordlessly. She was still trying to comprehend the situation with all that she knew being that Yomi had kissed her. _Yomi_ had _kissed_ her.

From the other side of the classroom, an enraged scream was heard as Kaorin pretty much leapt over her desk and stood in front of the bespectacled girl, fists clenched by her side and shaking in anger.

“How dare you violate Miss Sakaki like that! Without even asking!” Her voice was at a pitch high enough for all dogs in the area to suddenly feel compelled to run towards the local high school to see what all the commotion was about.

Yomi, still coming down from her high, looked down at Kaorin and seemed to realise that she had, in fact, done something quite intimate to Sakaki without asking her first and felt as though someone had poured cold water down her spine. She immediately turned towards Sakaki to apologise but was cut off by the tall girl raised a hand and stopping her from talking. Sakaki’s mouth was still flapping and she tried to think of something to say.

“I-It’s okay, r-really, I mean, it wasn’t b-bad or anything, I mean, no, that’s not what I-“ Sakaki pressed her lips together to stop the verbal diarrhea and nervously glanced around the room. There were so many people watching her. And that kiss…

“Excuse me…” Her voice came out an octave higher than normal and she tried to avoid eye contact with as many people as she could before speed walking to the door and practically pulling it off its roller with the force behind her arm. As the door slammed shut, a hush fell over the classroom.

“I think Miss Sakaki likes Yomi…” Osaka’s voice broke the silence and Yomi snapped her head from the door to her dreamy friend. Osaka stared back at her with a small smile on her lips and Yomi furrowed her eyebrows.

“Yeah, it’s pretty obvious.” Kagura nodded in thought, tapping her chin and jutting her lip out. Yomi turned her gaze to her.

“N-No way…” Kaorin looked on the verge of tears again and was glaring at Yomi with an intensity high enough to burn a hole through her skull.

Yukari quite suddenly opened the door to the classroom and brought all its occupants back to reality. The English teacher flicked the thumb over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow, “Anyone wanna explain to me why Sakaki’s out there grinning like a manic and muttering to herself?”

Tomo pointed at Yomi who smacked her hand down and glared at her, a blush forming on the girl’s cheeks as she nervously fiddled with the plane ticket in her hands.

Yukari sighed and slammed her books down on her podium before putting a hand on her hip and pointing at Yomi, “You.” She flicked her thumb over to the door again, “Go fix her.”

Yomi nodded and shoved the paper into her pocket, muttering out a ‘yes’. She shuffled to the door and slid it open only to see Sakaki sitting down on the floor across from her with her knees hugged to her chest and a radiant smile etched on her face. She wasn’t looking at the door, but the floor where she was tracing figures of eight with her finger idly. Yomi faltered and shut the door behind her before sitting down next to the tall girl who finally noticed the other girl’s presence and blinked before hiding her eyes with her hair.

“Hey…” Was the flustered greeting.

Yomi grinned and nudged the other girl’s shoulder with her own, “Hey.”


	2. Bad Hair Day (Sakaki)

There were a surprising amount of things that Sakaki really just didn’t like.

She didn’t like spiders or bugs, she didn’t like thunder and lighting, she didn’t like the dark, heights, clowns, animatronics, horror movies, those creepy porcelain dolls her grandma kept all over her house, loud noises, crowded places, answering the phone, hearing noises downstairs when she was home alone. Sakaki didn’t like any of those things, at all.

She didn’t like a lot of things about herself either. She didn’t like how tall she was compared to everyone around her and how it made her stand out, or her busty chest and how boys and girls alike at school gawked at it, or her blue eyes that didn’t really fit in yet her mother called ‘ _beautiful_ ’ anyway, or the fact that she suffered from what one could call “resting bitch face” which gave people the impression she was contemplating punching them in the neck at any given moment.

There was one thing that she loved, though. One thing that she liked about herself, that she prided herself in; her hair.

She had been growing it out since she could remember. Sakaki loved how long it was and how feminine it looked, so long and flowing and graceful. She would spend so long tending to it in the shower with her fancy herbal shampoo that she had to beg her mother to buy on the grounds that she would do more chores around the house in exchange. She’d brush out all the knots with tender care and run her hands through it and revel at how soft it was. She liked hiding behind it when she felt too exposed and when she wanted to hide her more messy emotions from the people around her. Sometimes she’d simply run her hands through it just to calm herself down.

When she was young, her mother would braid it and tie it up for her and sometimes she’d just leave it loose around her daughters head. Sakaki would stare at herself in the mirror and twirl, giggling, feeling like a princess with how it would lightly sway by her sides.

Sakaki loved her hair.

There was one incident, however, that she still cringed at to this day.

She was still in grade school and Sakaki had been insisting to her mother that she didn’t need a haircut just yet. There had always been people to pick on her and she had always ignored it to the best of her ability until one day when one of the rougher boys in her class had ran into her and knocked them both to the ground. At first, she had thought it was an accident but after he wouldn’t get off her she noticed that he was instead putting something in her hair. A big wad of something.

She had squealed and pushed him off as he laughed and pointed at her before running back off to be with his friends. Sakaki began feeling around frantically at the back of her head only to find a very large, very sticky, very warm glob of bubble gum stuck in her hair. Behind her she could hear more laughing as other kids on the playground realised what had happened and Sakaki tried desperately to pull it out but only made the situation that much worse. She was trembling and crying and her hands felt disgusting, covered in hair and spit and gum. A teacher noticed what was going on outside far too late and escorted the hysterical child inside.

They had phoned her parents who gave them permission to cut out all of the gum while Sakaki sat in the nurses office and whimpered at the snipping of scissors behind her.

She had cried into her mother’s lap for what felt like hours while her dad pet her now shoulder length hair and tried to calm her down, saying that it would grow back and how she still looked gorgeous.

Sakaki shook her head and furrowed her brows. She didn’t know why she was recalling that memory since she much preferred to forget about it.

“Ugh, it’s raining…” Yomi muttered from beside her and Sakaki snapped her head from the window to the rest of the classroom and realised that everyone else was packing up their stuff. Class was over.

“Oh, c’mon, Yomi, it’s not that bad!” Tomo practically flew to the bespectacled girl’s side and smacked her on the back while the latter let out a warning growl. Sakaki calmly packed up her own things and began making her way downstairs with her friends while they bickered behind her. Her thoughts idly wandered while she thought about what she would be having for dinner tonight. Her parents had said they would be going out to dinner without her so probably take-out again. They knew she didn’t really like going out all that often and so she wasn’t upset they hadn’t asked her to come with them, but she just hoped they’d remember to leave her more money than last time. Fumbling with her own wallet for extra bills while apologising to the delivery guy wasn’t on her list of things to-do.

The group of friends reluctantly made their way outside into the light rain. Sakaki kept at the back and gazed up into the grey sky. It had been raining on and off all day and there were muddy puddles dotted about the streets, most of which were being avoided by every other person leaving the school. Tomo, however, was running to each and every one and jumping into them.

She kicked and laughed while the rest of the group rolled their eyes collectively.

Tomo jumped in a puddle a little too close to Kagura than she would have liked.

“Dude, watch yourself! Not all of us want to be soaking wet by the time we get home!” The athlete quipped and swung at Tomo’s head with her umbrella who just managed to dodge it and laughed again.

“You guys are so boring! Chiyo! You’re still a kid, come and play with me!” Tomo ran in front of them all again and kicked another puddle onto an unsuspecting Chiyo who squealed in protest.

“Tomo! Stop it! I’m not a kid!” Chiyo dived behind Yomi and clutched at her waist, “Miss Yomi, please tell her to stop!”

Yomi reached behind her and stroked the trembling child’s hair in comfort while glaring daggers at Tomo, “Tomo, I swear to god, if you keep jumping in those damn puddle’s I’m gonna-!”

“You’ll what?” Tomo cut her off and stepped right up to Yomi, causing the whole group to come to a stop, standing on her tip toes just so she could be at eye-level with the simmering girl, “You’ll beat me up? Dang, Yomi, you’re threats are getting booooring!”

Yomi clenched her teeth and counted to ten in her head. Tomo strutted over to Osaka and tossed an arm over her shoulder, “What about you, my little Osakan partner in crime?” Tomo grinned in a way she probably thought was charming while Osaka just blinked at her and cocked her head to the side. She was silent for a second.

“I don’t know, Tomo, I don’t wanna get no cold or nothin’…” Tomo let out a dramatic whine and stomped her way back to Kagura who shook her head at the wildcat and smacked her upside the head, muttering out an “idiot” in the process.

Sakaki, still at the back of their walking party, let a small smile grace her lips and let out a breath through her nose that could be considered a laugh of sorts. She had been blessed with such oddball friends. Things like this happened pretty much all the time and while it had taken her a while to become accustomed to how ridiculous most of the people she hung around were, she couldn’t think of any other way she would want it to be.

She wasn’t surprised Tomo hadn’t asked her to frolic in the puddles with her. People often assumed she was the serious type and wouldn’t have dreamed doing such a thing. If she was being honest with herself, she probably wouldn’t have said yes anyway because the thought of getting mud anywhere near her didn’t seem all too pleasing.

The road they were walking along was pretty deserted with only a few puddles on the road. Tomo seemed to have calmed down somewhat and was now hanging off Kagura and trying to hog her umbrella while the latter tried to shove her off. Chiyo was walking between Osaka and Yomi and talking animatedly about something or other with Osaka interjecting every now and again and Yomi letting out the occasional chuckle. It was peaceful.

And of course, peace is always ultimately shattered brutally and violently at the most inconvenient of times.

From behind them, a truck suddenly came barrelling around a corner and started whizzing down the road right as the group of girls were walking past a particularly large mud puddle.

The truck drove past, hitting the puddle with enough speed to cause a tidal wave of watery mud to come spewing up and splashing down on them.

There was a collective scream and pause as they all tried to comprehend what had happened. Yomi and Kagura immediately started shouting creative curses at the driver as he sped away, Kagura going as far as to throw her umbrella after him only to have it float harmlessly to the ground. Tomo had begun laughing hysterically and was leaning against Osaka who was also laughing but not with quite as much gusto. Chiyo stood stock still and let the murky water drip down her chin while her bottom lip trembled.

“Oh, my god!” Tomo wheezed, clapping Osaka on the back, “Oh, man, what timing!”

“Worst fucking timing in the world!” Yomi seethed, trembling with rage, not knowing what to do with it except flail her arms by her side and continue yelling explicative after explicative at the driver who had long since gone.

Chiyo looked down at herself and let out a whine, “Ah, all my uniform’s dirty!”

Between them, the girls continued talking over each other with most of Tomo’s contribution being laughter. She eventually wiped the corner of her eyes and let out another chuckle, this one sounding more final. Tomo glanced around at her friend’s, the goofy smile remaining on her face as she scanned theirs. Yomi and Kagura were yelling at each other about how much of a douche the driver was while Osaka was patting Chiyo on the back. Finally, Tomo’s eyes landed on Sakaki who was stood completely still with her shoulders bunched up by her ears and my hands clenched tightly on her briefcase and umbrella. From the looks of it, Sakaki had been the one to take the brunt of the puddle’s wrath. Her bangs were covering her face so Tomo couldn’t really see what Sakaki’s face was like but she could only imagine and the thought made Tomo burst into another round of giggles.

She turned on the tall schoolgirl and walked up to her smacking her on the shoulder, noticing that there was a large amount of mud now caking her back and hair.

“Wow, tough break, Sakaki! Thanks for protecting the rest of us though!” Another peal of laughter, another smack on the shoulder.

Under Tomo’s hand, she could suddenly begin to feel Sakaki trembling. The shorter girl let out a hum of confusion, smile starting to fade from her lips as she leaned forward to try and see under Sakaki’s long hair.

“Sakaki? You okay? I-I was only joking, I-“ Tomo’s cautious voice was cut off as she saw Sakaki’s face.

The girl’s expression looked shocked enough considering what had just happened, but tears had begun streaming down her cheeks.

Tomo was at a loss at what to do. She had no clue how to deal with emotional people, let alone _Sakaki_ of all people. Tomo spun on her heel and glanced around her friends again who hadn’t noticed what was going on.

“Guuuuuuys! Sakaki’s crying.”

All sets of eyes snapped over to where Tomo and Sakaki were stood and Tomo shrugged worriedly, waving her hand at where Sakaki’s face was as if to make her point clear. Yomi was the first to move, striding over and smacking Tomo’s hand down, “Tomo, what did you do?” She snapped but worry crossed her features too at the sight of their normally stoic friend in tears over something so minor.

For Sakaki, when the mud had initially hit her back she had merely tensed up and let out a squeak. She felt it spray up her legs and back and her hair.

Her hair.

She had felt the wetness dribble down her neck and immediately froze, her mind jumping back to that moment in grade school. The same wet, sticky feeling coating her hair. The only difference this time being it was freezing cold but in her mind it didn’t make much of a difference.

“I didn’t do anything! I mean, I don’t think I did, I was just joking around!” Tomo began running her hands through her hair. She didn’t normally feel this bad about making people cry, She made Chiyo cry all the time.

“Damn it, Tomo, you’ve always gotta take the joke too far!” Kagura scolded her too, also scared by the situation. She knew that her rival wasn’t as tough as the rest of the school perceived her to be but this just seemed wrong.

As she approached Sakaki to stand beside her, the tall girl began moving. Dropping her briefcase and umbrella, Sakaki slowly reached behind her and pulled her mud soaked hair over one shoulder and tried wiping some of it off only to get a shaking hand full of mud and stray hair. The group stood in silence for a moment, confused while Sakaki flicked the mud on the flood and began using both hands to try and clean out her hair of the thick goop.

Under her breath she was muttering, “No, no, not again, damn it…”

Kagura looked over at Yomi who looked over at her and shrugged, raising her eyebrow. The situation was weird, to say the least, but for Sakaki it looked like she was about to collapse on the floor from stress. Cautiously, Yomi reached forward and grabbed Sakaki’s frantically moving hands which caused the raven haired girl to snap her glassy eyes to hers.

“Sakaki, calm down, it’s just mud.” Yomi kept her voice level, as if talking to a scared child but kept her grip on Sakaki’s wrists just in case. Sakaki furrowed her eyebrows and looked down at her sopping hair and then back at Yomi.

“…mud?”

“Yeah, it’ll wash out, don’t even worry about it.” Kagura interjected, waving a hand dismissively in an attempt to break the tension.

Sakaki let out a breath and stared into nothingness for a second, “… yeah, it will.” It was mostly to herself and Yomi let go of her arms which the other girl slowly lowered to her sides. There was more silence as Sakaki bent down to pick up her briefcase and umbrella and the silence continued a little further after that, reaching into awkward territory which was broke by a light cough from Tomo which caused all eyes to focus on her.

“Well…” She began, swinging her arms by her side, “… that was fuckin’ weird.”

Yomi rolled her eyes and smacked her best friend lightly on the head, “Shut up.”

Tomo cackled and shrugged, jogging to catch up with the other girl as she speed walked away, “Oh, come on, that was totally weird!”

“Don’t make her feel bad, you inconsiderate-!”

“Guys…” Sakaki’s voice cut through their argument and the rest of the girls turned to look at their tall companion who was looking at the ground and shuffling her feet, “Uh…”

“We won’t talk about if you don’t want us to,” Kagura offered, giving her rival a beaming smile to try and calm her down, “It’s none of our business anyway. Ain’t that right, Tomo!” She called over to the other girl who stuck her tongue out and made a raspberry noise. Sakaki let out a relieved sigh and the group resumed walking again, Yomi, Tomo, and Kagura taking up the front this time while Osaka and Chiyo walked with Sakaki.

Chiyo twiddled her fingers while she walked, glancing between the floor and Sakaki before, “M-Miss Sakaki? Are you sure you’re okay?”

Sakaki glanced down at the prodigy and into her large, innocent eyes. She gave a small smile and nodded once, grunting a yes. Chiyo didn’t seem all that convinced but let the matter slide anyway. She could tell that Sakaki didn’t really want to talk about the ordeal but her thoughts were cut off by Osaka who had remained unusually silent through the whole ordeal.

“Y’know,” Osaka began, making Sakaki glance down at her too, “I was watchin’ this documentary about all these people who’d just up and been abducted by aliens. An’ they was talkin’ about how these aliens took control o’ their minds sometimes even after they’d put ‘em back on earth,” Osaka stared up at Sakaki who was now raising her eyebrows at the space cadet, “Maybe somethin’ like that happened to you just now an’ you can’t remember them aliens abductin’ you in the first place!” Her voiced sounded as though she’d just discovered all of the known universe’s secrets and both Chiyo and Sakaki blinked at her.

Sakaki remained silent for a second before letting out a giggle that surprised both of them, “Osaka, don’t ever change.”

She loved her friends probably more than she loved her hair.

But right now she would really love a bath because this mud was hardening something fierce…


	3. Sweater (Sakaki/Yomi)

After letting Yomi get her results for university and her promptly beating the shit out of Tomo for lying to her about it, the group of friends began the not-so-long walk to the train station. It was relatively early and so they still had plenty of time to get to Magical Land and get on all the rides they wanted to.

As per usual, their walks consisted of two or three of the girls breaking off into their own sub-groups and having their own conversations. Chiyo was oddly quiet this time. Not that the young prodigy was normally chatting all of their ears off but she at least contributed to the conversation somewhat, but her focus seemed to be somewhere else entirely.

Truth be told they had noticed that she’d been acting rather emotional since their graduation but this seemed slightly different.

“For god’s sake, Tomo, I’m telling you I’m not going to faint on that damn rollercoaster.” Yomi snapped, getting fed up with the shorter girl’s jabs rather quickly. She hadn’t exactly had the calmest of nerves since the incident with her entrance exam results not ten minutes ago.

Tomo grinned wickedly and snatched the guide book out of Yomi’s hands yet again, “Not even at _this_ one?” She flicked open the page to a different roller coaster and Yomi didn’t bother looking at the page before snatching it back and shoving it into her bag.

“ _Yes,_ I’m sure, now shut up.” _Remember your breathing exercises, Koyomi, remember to breathe…_

“Uh… Miss Yomi?” Chiyo appeared by her side and looked up at her with furrowed eyebrows. Her eyes seemed drawn to what Yomi was wearing than her face though. Yomi looked down and smiled lightly, trying to regain control of her anger so she didn’t snap at the innocent party of their group.

“Yes, Chiyo?”

“Where did you get that sweater?”

Yomi froze and blinked, her step faltering, “What?”

“Where did you get it?” Chiyo asked again, pulling at the fabric of the sweater’s sleeve. It seemed inconspicuous enough; a faded orange striped turtleneck, slightly baggy on the bespectacled girls form, “I feel like I’ve seen it before and it’s bugging me…” Chiyo pouted and furrowed her brows again, looking just like the child she actually was. Yomi shrugged and chuckled.

“I honestly don’t remember, Chiyo. And you’ve probably seen me wearing it before, right?”

“No, I’ve seen it somewhere before too, now that you mention it…” Kagura interjected from behind them walking up beside Yomi and tapping her chin in thought, leaving Sakaki in the rear. Yomi’s smile seemed to become a lot tighter.

“Really, guys, it’s not a big deal, it’s just a sweater.”

“Hmm, could it be that you’re hiding something from us, dear Koyomi?” Tomo slid back up beside Kagura and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and Yomi scoffed, rolling her eyes but it seemed a lot more hurried.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Tomo. How could I be hiding something with an article of clothing?”

“What do you think, Sakaki? You seen this thing somewhere before?” Tomo blatantly ignored what Yomi had just said and called over her shoulder at the tall girl who stared at the small cluster of friends in front of her, Osaka trotting along next to her. She nibbled her lip for a second before shrugging as well.

“Probably somewhere.”

“Well, I should hope so since it’s your sweater ‘n’ all.” Osaka stated.

The whole group came to a halt and stared at the dreamy girl. Yomi pressed her lips together and Sakaki blushed. Osaka blinked at everyone and suddenly developed a confused look on her face.

“It is hers right? Miss Sakaki was wearin’ it only the other day at Chiyo’s place.” She sounded confused, as if having everyone stare at her made her second guess herself.

“Oh, my god, she’s right.” Kagura’s voice was monotonous as she made the statement with a hint of awe. She glanced between Sakaki, who was shuffling her feet and avoiding eye contact, and Yomi, who had folded her arms and was _also_ avoiding eye contact.

“Miss Sakaki, is it your sweater?” Chiyo walked in front of her tall friend and tried to look at her from under her long bangs, asking the question innocently and not getting the implications that all the others were.

“It totally is! She wore it the other day and… ugh, that one time…” Tomo clicked her fingers as if trying to recall the memory before her eyes widened and she pointed at Sakaki with a twinkle in her eye, “That time we went for karaoke! At Christmas!”

Sakaki looked just about ready to burst and Yomi quickly came to her rescue by elbowing her way past Tomo and standing in front of the tomato-red girl, “Yes, okay, fine, it’s Sakaki’s sweater!” She pulled at the material like that would make her point clearer and stared the wildcat down who simply gaped at her friend with a smirk forming on her mouth.

“Yomi! Oh, my god, why didn’t you tell me you and Sakaki were an item.” She wiggled her eyebrows again and shimmied up to Yomi’s side. Sakaki let out a squeak and suddenly began speed walking ahead, face inflamed by a ferocious blush. Kagura was too in a state of shock to run after her and Yomi simply sighed tiredly before shoving her hyperactive friend off her shoulder and stomping after the lone wolf, calling out after her.

“Sakaki! Wait up!”

There was a silence that hung in the air as the four remaining girls processed what had just happened. Tomo glanced around as if expecting such news to have more of an impact on them and cleared her throat. Kagura was the first to speak, surprisingly.

“Bet you any money Sakaki gave it to her as a good luck charm for today.” Her voice held conviction and Tomo rolled her eyes and patted the athlete on the shoulder.

“Oh, please, I bet she’s hiding hickey’s.”

Kagura snapped her hand out which Tomo immediately shook and the two proceeded to begin running after Yomi, yelling, “Yomi, hang on, we gotta ask you something!”

Chiyo and Osaka gazed down the road their friends had run down, deserting them. They began walking and Chiyo looked even more confused than before.

“Miss Osaka, what’s a hickey?”

“Remember what Miss Kurosawa told us ‘bout durin’ last year’s summer break? Stuff like that.”

“Oh…” Chiyo’s face flushed. She didn’t really understand what their PE teacher had been walking about but she could tell from everyone’s reaction it was something she probably wouldn’t understand until she was older and that was enough information for her to make a guess at what it was Tomo was implying.

“We should probably hurry up, Chiyo, or we’ll miss the train.”

“Y-Yeah…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay really tho, if you go back and watch the episodes i mentioned yomi is literally wearing the exact same sweater as sakaki was during the christmas karaoke


	4. Crush Talk (Tomo/Osaka) (Yomi/Sakaki)

Yomi sat at her desk and was just finishing up the last of her homework, gnawing on the end of her pencil at a particularly difficult maths equation. The radio was turned on, playing through Tomo’s phone on shuffle as the girl had plugged it in on her arrival. It was currently playing something that sounded like another language which Yomi wasn’t too surprised about. She had asked Tomo before why she listened to music in languages she couldn’t understand and Tomo had shrugged and said how she didn’t care what language it was in as long as it was catchy and Yomi couldn’t really blame her for that.

Her room was surprisingly quite considering that Tomo was there. Normally by this time in the night the shorter girl had struck up conversations about anything and everything but she was being unusually quiet. Yomi would have been worried if she wasn’t so relieved. The song changed. Yomi finished the last equation with a flourish of her pencil and let out tired sigh before taking her glasses of and placing them on her desk, rubbing her eyes.

“Okay,” She muttered, turning to Tomo and slipping her glasses back on, “What’s up with you? You haven’t said a word since you stole control of my music.”

Tomo tilted her head from staring at the ceiling to Yomi’s eyes and jutted her lip out, like she was wondering if she should say what she wanted to. Yomi raised an eyebrow and waited. After a few moments, Tomo scooted over somewhat from her lying down position on the bed and pat the space next to her, inviting Yomi to lie down with her. The bespectacled girl rolled her eyes and let out a chuckle but wandered over to her bed and lay down anyway.

“So, what’s up?” She asked again, folding her hands over her stomach. Yomi felt Tomo shrug next to her.

“Nothing, really. Just thinking.”

“Woah there, don’t hurt yourself.”

“Oh, wow, Yomi, you’re so funny, I’ve never heard that one before.”

“I know, right?” Yomi nudged Tomo in the side, “But seriously, what are you thinking about that’s got you so… serious. It’s weird.”

There was another stretch of silence and Yomi was about to ask again, becoming irritated with Tomo’s evasion of the topic since she seemed adamant to tell her earlier, but Tomo quickly broke it.

“I wanna ask Osaka out on a date.”

Yomi nearly choked on her own spit, “W-What?” She turned her head and stared at Tomo with wide eyes and gaping mouth.

“You heard me.” Tomo smirked, turning her own head to grin at her best friend.

“Wow… I-I… good for you, Tomo, I guess.” She really didn’t know what Tomo was expecting her to do or say about it. Tomo hummed and turned back to staring at the ceiling, grin still etched on her face, “Why are you telling me? And why were you thinking so hard about it?”

“Well…” Tomo started, leaning up and moving to sit cross-legged at the end of Yomi’s bed. Yomi moved too, shuffling backwards until she was leaning back against her headboard, “This is what best friends do, right? Tell each other about their crushes and junk?” Her voice sounded teasing and Yomi nibbled her lip.

“I mean, I guess? We’ve never had crushes to talk about before.”

“Aside from the one you had on my brother?”

“I will fucking murder you if you ever bring that up again.”

Tomo cackled and Yomi smirked despite herself, “Whatever, why were you thinking so hard about it?” She snapped, grin still on her face, slapping Tomo on the leg to make her continue.

“I don’t know, I guess I’m just thinking about how to ask her and what I’ll do when she says yes.”

“You sound confident in your skills, Casanova”

“Yomi, oh my god, I already told you you’re hilarious once tonight, no need to rub it in.” Tomo held a hand against her chest and tried to look affronted but it was ruined by her lips trembling with the effort not to snap back into a goofy smile, “But yeah, I was gonna ask for your help but since you’re being such a _dick_ about it…” Tomo trailed off and made to get off the bed and towards the window, shrugging. Yomi rolled her eyes for what felt like the millionth time and yanked the wildcat back onto the bed.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, just tell me what you want help with.”

“Hell if I know. I don’t even know where to _start_.”

“Well, what does Osaka like doing?” Yomi tried to think of a few ideas herself but was coming up blank. Sure, there were a lot of things Osaka would like to do but since one of them was see her life flash before her eyes and another one was to see Bigfoot, Yomi knew it wasn’t going to be an easy task for them to come up with something. Tomo shrugged again and made a noise at the back of her throat.

“Alright then, why don’t you just do the default thing for a date?”

“…which is…?”

“Dinner and a movie, dummy.”

“Ooooh, right… what movie?”

Yomi mimicked Tomo and shrugged, making a noise at the back of her throat, “Just ask her or something.”

“But that would give me away!”

“Well, fuck, Tomo, I don’t know!” Yomi flailed her arms, “What do you want me to say?”

Tomo laughed and batted Yomi’s arms down, “Calm yourself, woman!”

Yomi shook her head and sighed, a ghost of a smile on her lips. She rubbed her bridge of her nose and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to come up with some better ideas, “I’m still trying to get over the fact that you want to ask Osaka out.”

“You’re saying it like it’s a bad thing.” Tomo pouted at her.

“No, I’m not, I’m just saying I wasn’t expecting it.” She clarified, speaking as though she was talking to small child, “What is it you like about her anyway?”

Tomo suddenly got this far away look in her eye and she sighed, a slow, dopey smile spreading across her face. Her eyes twinkled and Yomi raised an eyebrow at the expression; it really looked like she was in love with the other girl.

“Man, where do I even start? Well, for one thing she actually listens to me.”

“We all have to listen to you, Tomo, you’re so loud.”

“No, I mean she actually listens to me and what I have to say and she doesn’t just brush off my opinions and call me stupid like _someone_ in this room does.” Tomo stared pointedly at Yomi who lowered her eyes and furrowed her brows. She muttered out a ‘sorry’ and Tomo waved her hand dismissively, “Eh, whatever… she’s just a nice person to be around, you know? And some of the stuff she comes out with, oh my god, it’s just so funny! I don’t even think she realises it! And her accent’s cute, too. How she says some stuff, it’s cute.” Tomo’s eyes were unfocused on the wall behind Yomi’s head and the latter raised her eyebrows at how Tomo was talking about their Osakan friend.

“You must… really like her to remember all that stuff about her.” Yomi’s voice was a lot softer, knowing that Tomo obviously had some strong emotions about the subject at hand. Tomo seemed to snap out of her daze and grinned wolfishly at her and Yomi immediately regretted saying anything.

“Aw, you sound jealous, my dear Koyomi.” She shimmied her way up the bed and lay next to Yomi in an exaggeratedly suggestive pose; laying her her side with one hand behind her head and the other one draped over her leg that was arced up, eyebrows wiggling, “Could it be that you’re harbouring secret romantic feelings for me?”

Yomi wrinkled her nose and pulled a face, “Ew, no.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right, you’re harbouring them for someone else in the class, aren’t you?” Tomo sat up straight next to her and Yomi gave her a blank stare.

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t think I haven’t noticed you staring at her during class.”

“I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

Tomo scoffed and shoved Yomi’s shoulder, “I’m talking about, Sakaki, you nerd!”

Yomi gaped at Tomo and her face turned a light shade of pink, the only sign that Tomo’s words held any truth, “D-Don’t be ridiculous!” And the stutter.

“Oh, please, Yomi, you’re so obvious you could give Kaorin a run for her money! I mean, tutoring her at her house? That’s like, the biggest trope out there! Plus, you flirt with her like it’s nobody’s business.”

“I do _not._ ”

“You totally fucking do! God, Yomi! C’mon, I told you my crush now just admit to yours and then we’re even!”

Yomi looked away from Tomo and worried her lip with her teeth.

“Okay, maybe I flirt a little…”

“There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Yomi huffed and turned to look at Tomo with frustration in her eyes, “It’s not like she notices. And I’m not the only one who has a crush on her, like, half the student body does!”

“Well, yeah, she’s fucking gorgeous and smart and athletic _and_ she loves cute little animals, no wonder they do. She’s literally perfect.”

“I know…” Yomi whined, dropping her head into her hands feeling very dejected all of a sudden, “I don’t stand a chance with her so there’s no point dwelling on it.”

“I don’t know, I think she likes you back.”

“Pff, yeah, sure she does.”

“No, I’m serious! I’ve seen her staring at you with this face…”

“She stares at everybody, Tomo.”

“Well, yeah, but she does this thing with her eyebrows,” Tomo pointed at her own as if it would prove her point, “And she looks like she’s ready to scoop you up in a hug or something.”

Yomi stared at her sheets and traced circles in them, not really listening to what Tomo was saying. Tomo sighed and looked around the room trying to think of what to say.

“… she stares at your ass during PE, too.”

Yomi’s face burst into a blush and she yanked her pillow from behind her, thwacking Tomo over the head with it while the latter laughed. The taller of the two continued with her hitting, yelling between each strike, “She does not! Sakaki isn’t a pervert!” Tomo continued laughing and covering her head with her arms until Yomi stopped and shoved her face into the pillow on her lap. While she was calming down and wiping the tears or mirth away from her eyes, Tomo looked down at the back of Yomi’s head as she smothered herself with the pillow.

“… does she?” Yomi’s voice was muffled by the pillow and Tomo chuckled.

“Yes. You can ask Kagura, too. She saw and asked Sakaki about it and she just started blushing apparently.”

“Oh my god…” Yomi muttered, laughing into the pillow at how ridiculous the situation was. She pulled her face out of the pillow, keeping it on her lap and stared forward, her face looking as though she was trying very hard to stop herself from smiling.

“Can’t blame her, really, your booty be bangin’.”

Yomi snorted and shook her head at Tomo, raising her hand and pretending to backhand the shorter girl who made a weak noise of protest.

The two friends sighed in unison, calming down from their emotional high. They sat in silence for a few moments, the only sound coming from their slowly regulating breathing and the radio that was still shuffling through Tomo’s iPod.

“You know, everyone calls her the lone wolf,” Yomi started, still staring forward with a fond look in her eyes, “But she’s more of a little puppy…” Tomo grinned and chuckled, “She’s always just so nice to me… and she always tells me that I don’t need to be on a diet and stuff…” She began twiddling her fingers together and glanced down at them, “And there’s just something about her… I don’t know, she just calms me down by doing nothing at all…” Another brief silence.

“When I was over at her house one time, I met her dad? Dude’s massive. Built like a brick shithouse.” Yomi deadpanned and Tomo laughed again, smacking Yomi on the arm in mirth, “I’m serious! And her mom is so tiny and quiet! They’re completely different people and they managed to make someone like Sakaki, I don’t know… it’s weird.”

“You think we both have a chance with the people we like, then?” Tomo finally asked, calming herself down as much as she could. Yomi pushed her bottom lip out in thought and her eyebrows twitched.

“I guess as much as the next guy.”

“Alright, then,” Tomo grunted and stood up on the bed, stepping over a confused Yomi and followed her with her eyes. Tomo jumped down and landed with a thud, arms flailing somewhat to keep herself balanced. She stood up straight and held her hand out for a handshake, “If you be my wingman for Osaka, I’ll be yours when you ask Sakaki out!”

Yomi raised an eyebrow and stared at Tomo’s hand like she was handing her an old fish, “And what make you think I’m going to ask Sakaki out?”

Tomo shrugged and kept her hand held out, “Because you’re stubborn and you always get what you want?”

“True,” Yomi smirked and stood up in front of Tomo, gripping her best friend’s hand in hers and giving it a firm shake, “You got yourself a deal.”

Tomo’s grin widened, “Alriiiiight! Operation ‘Get-Tomo-And-Yomi-A-Date’ is a-go!”

“That is the stupidest title for a plan you’ve ever come up with.”

“Ah, shut up, you love it.”


	5. First Names

“Hey, guys, do you know where Miss Sakaki is?” Kaorin scuttled over to Tomo, Osaka, and Chiyo, glancing around her like she was expecting the tall schoolgirl to pop out of nowhere.

Tomo shrugged and made an “I-don’t-know” noise in the back of her throat and Osaka shrugged along with her.

“Miss Sakaki said she wasn’t feeling very well yesterday so she’s probably off sick today.” Chiyo piped up, shuffling the books on her desk and grinning up at the nervous girl. Sakaki had told her on their walk home that her head felt stuffy and dizzy. Well, in not so many words, more she just furrowed her eyebrows and nearly walked into a lamppost so Chiyo just assumed…

“M-Miss Sakaki’s _sick_?!” Kaorin squealed, “Oh, no! She’s probably home, all by herself with no one to look after her!”

“W-Well, maybe one of her parents took a day off to-“

“Oh! I know! I’ll go visit her after school to see if she’s okay!”

“Ah, don’t worry about it so much, Kaorin, this is Miss Sakaki we’re talking about! She’s probably faking it just so she can just get a day off!”

“B-But, Tomo, I don’t think Miss Sakaki would do something like tha-”

“Oh, pff, c’mon, we all know she’s some total badass who doesn’t care about the rules! She’s always got her hands wrapped up in bandages ‘n’ stuff, probably from beating up some punks who think they can mess with her!” Tomo proceeded to punch the air with a few added sound effects for good measure. Kaorin sighed dreamily and covered her blushing cheeks with her hands.

“Ahh, Miss Sakaki is so cool~!”

“Say,” Osaka stated, reminding everyone that she was, indeed, still there, “Do any o’ y’all actually know Miss Sakaki’s firs’ name?”

There was a moment of silence as the other three girls thought about it. Tomo let out a laugh and rounded on Kaorin, poking a finger into her chest.

“Hah! Some friend you are! You don’t even know her name!” The smirk in Tomo’s voice and accusing finger being poked into her chest caused Kaorin to burst into a flustered blush, eyebrows furrowed and mouth opening and closing in disbelief, squeaks escaping her.

“You don’t know either!” Was her ingenious response.

Tomo laughed again and turned away from Kaorin, strutting idly to lean against the desk Chiyo was sitting at, “At least I can admit it! Besides, _I’m_ not the one who has a crush on her! Good grief, Kaorin, you’d think you’d know the full name of the person you’re in love with!”

If possible, Kaorin got redder and her flustered squeaks got higher, “ _I-I am not in love with Miss Sakaki! Don’t be absurd!_ ”

“Um, excuse me?”

Tomo and Kaorin snapped their heads to stare down at Chiyo who had gotten up from her chair and was now wringing her hands together in worry, “Shouldn’t we be wondering why none of us remember Miss Sakaki’s first name?”

“Y-Yes! We absolutely should!” Kaorin quickly agreed, pointing at Chiyo while staring at Tomo, shaking slightly.

Tomo sighed dramatically and rolled her head back to emphasise… whatever it was she was trying to emphasise. Kaorin grumbled under her breath and seemed to now be thinking very hard on figuring out if she had ever heard anyone call Sakaki by her first name. Or if she had ever heard it at all. Surely she must have, right? There’s no way someone could go through half a school year without having _someone_ mention their name, right? Kaorin began nibbling on her thumb nail, eyes darting along the floor under furrowed eyebrows. In fact, now that she thought about it, how _could_ she call herself Sakaki’s friend if she didn’t even know her first name? Sure, Tomo and the others didn’t seem to know it either but for _her_ to not know? The whole thing felt wrong.

Meanwhile, outside of Kaorin’s slowly descending thoughts, Tomo and Osaka were throwing ideas back and forth between each other while Chiyo’s head continually switched from looking at Tomo to Osaka, like some kind of weird tennis game.

“Okay, so, Yukari says our name during roll call, right? All the teachers do! Maybe she reads it out there but none of us have ever noticed!” Tomo explained, pressing a finger to her temple.

Chiyo waved her hand dismissively, “No, no, they don’t. They just call her Sakaki like everyone else... which is… very odd now that I think about it…” The thought niggled at Chiyo’s brain but she quickly tried to stop thinking about it and end up like Kaorin who now looked to be trying to stop herself from hyperventilating.

“Oh!” Osaka exclaimed, causing both Tomo and Chiyo to jump slightly, “What if she don’t even have a firs’ name! What if Sakaki ain’t her name at all? What if she’s like me an’ its jus’ a nick name someone gave her on the firs’ day!”

“Psh!” Tomo rolled her eyes, “Osaka, don’t be an idiot, _everyone’s_ got a first name! Besides, no one in this class gets a nick name without my approval!” Puffing out her chest in a display of showing off her non-existent achievement of giving everyone in the class a nick name.

Osaka looked disheartened that her idea had been shot down so quickly and pouted, letting out a disappointed hum.

“What are you guys talking about?” An extra voice sounded from behind Chiyo who jumped and swivelled to look up at a single raised eyebrow and gleaming glasses.

“Oh! Miss Yomi! Thank goodness!”

At that greeting Yomi assumed something stupid was happening and immediately put up her mental bullshit barrier, “Okay, what’s going on here, Tomo?”

“What!? Why do you always assume everything’s got to do with me?”

“Does it?”

“No!”

“I find that hard to believe, forgive me for saying.”

“Oh, shut up, you’re not even sorry.”

“True.”

“U-Uh…” Chiyo raised her hand slightly and caught Yomi’s attention before her and Tomo delved into a bigger argument, “We were wondering why none of us could remember Miss Sakaki’s first name…”

Yomi inhaled and opened her mouth as if to give an explanation but paused when what Chiyo just said sunk in, “Wait… you guys don’t remember Sakaki’s first name?”

“ _No!_ ” Kaorin sobbed, finally saying something after a good ten minutes of introspective though, and proceeded to weep into her hands. The rest of them jumped at the exclamation but quickly turned back to Yomi who was looking around the group of girls like they had just asked her to explain why they need oxygen to live.

“You… You guys aren’t messing with me, you seriously don’t know?” Her voice was as incredulous as her expression and Chiyo suddenly felt at a loss. Had she missed something? Was is so obvious that she hadn’t even considered it an option? Hidden in plain sight, as the saying goes? Before she could spiral into a Kaorin inspired panic attack, Tomo let out a grunt/growl or frustration.

“Yes, we’re serious, four-eyes! Sorry we ain’t all as observant as you!”

“It takes literally no observation at all, just common fucking sense, shit-for-brains.”

“Yomiii!” Osaka exclaimed, surprising both Yomi and Tomo. Osaka gestured towards Chiyo, “We got a kid here! Ya can’t be usin’ that type o’ language!”

“I-It’s okay, Miss Osaka… I’ve heard her say worse… much, _much_ worse…”

Yomi grunted and waved her hand about as if trying to wave the topic of conversation back to its original topic, “Whatever, just… just whatever.”

“So you know?”

“Know what?”

“Sakaki’s first name.”

“Well… yeah.”

“…”

“…”

“… are you gonna share it with the group?”

Slowly, Yomi began to smile. The same kind of smile she had when she tricked Osaka into eating spicy food. That shit-eating smirk that practically screamed ‘haha you fucked up the second you spoke to me’, “Well… maybe… what’s in it for me?”

“Uh…” Tomo looked around like something in the room was going to pop out at her. Nothing seemed to grab her interest so, “The continuation of our friendship.”

Yomi pretended to think about it, tapping her chin, gazing at the celling, pressing her lips together and humming in an overly high voice, “Mmmmmmmnope.” She then proceeded to deliberately step around Tomo, around Osaka, and around the still crying Kaorin, giving her a sarcastic pat on the back in comfort, and making a beeline to her desk next to Sakaki’s vacant one.

As she sat down and began pulling out her books and pens for the day, Tomo skidded to a halt next to her, slamming her hands on her desk but Yomi refused to look up, making a show of aligning her pencils neatly with her notebook and sighing.

“C’mon, please! Just tell us! It’s not like it’s gonna cost you anything!” Tomo whined, shuffling her feet and trying to put her face in Yomi’s eye line. The bespectacled girl in question raised an eyebrow again and clicked her tongue, turning her head to stare at Tomo’s pleading expression for a second.

“No.”

Tomo sighed dramatically again and stomped in a circle around Yomi’s desk before halting and pointing at Chiyo from across the room.

“Chiyo!”

The young prodigy flinched and scurried over to Yomi’s desk, Osaka soon following just to see how this whole thing would go down. Chiyo stared expectantly up at Tomo, beginning to stutter out a response to the blunt address but was quickly cut off as Tomo began pointing at Yomi again. Yomi, who was busy staring straight ahead with a look of utter boredom on her face.

“Pay her.”

“Wh-What?”

“Pay her! So she’ll tell us what Sakaki’s first name is!”

Yomi’s eyes twitched towards Tomo. It seemed the idea of payment wouldn’t be rejected. Tomo saw this and swivelled back to face Yomi, planting her hands on the front of her desk and grinning. Yomi smirked, realising that this was now going to become a negotiation, and stared Tomo down.

“Alright… how much?”

Yomi pursed her lips, still staring at Tomo, the corners of her mouth twitching into a smile.

After a pause, “10,000 yen.”

“ _WHAT?!”_ Tomo screeched immediately, snapping up straight and staring at Yomi who simply chuckled and kept the smug look on her face.

“You heard me. 10,000 or nothin’.”

“Is this like, the opposite of hush money?” Osaka asked causing Yomi’s smug look to flicker with exasperation.

“A bribe. It’s a bribe, Osaka. They’re bribing me, and its working.”

“U-Um…”

Yomi looked back towards Chiyo who she had briefly forgotten was there and realised she was shaking and immediately felt guilty at the sight.

“I can’t give you he money right now, but… I-I can ask my father to write you a cheque if you want, or a bank transfer or-“ Chiyo stuttered, wringing her hands together. Yomi could practically see the worry lines forming on the 10-year-old’s head already and sighed, waving her hand to cut her young friend off.

“It’s fine, Chiyo, I was only joking,” She wasn’t, “You don’t have to pay me anything.” In actuality, she was going to ask for something higher but moderated herself at the last minute. Yomi wanted to see how far she could go with this thing but apparently, in order to keep peace of mind, her soul simply couldn’t let her con a child out of money for something she could very well find out on her own.

The other two, however…

“If I tell you will you leave me alone for _at least_ until the end of the day?” The question was directed at Tomo who nodded eagerly and muttered out a quick ‘sure sure fine’ but Yomi was 99% sure she wasn’t listening to what she had just said anyway. Osaka… Yomi didn’t really want anything from Osaka.

“Arisu. Arisu Sakaki. That’s her name.”

Just like that, the information was out there. Anyone who was listening didn’t really know what to do with said information. If they were being honest, they didn’t really know what they were expecting in the first place. Osaka nodded almost knowingly, Tomo furrowed her eyebrows and groaned.

“Ugh, that’s so _boring_!”

“I think it’s pretty.” Chiyo enthused, looking considerably happier than she did a few seconds ago.

“And do you wanna know how I knew that?” Yomi said in a comically secretive voice that only Osaka seemed to take seriously, “I asked her. Like a person. With my words.”

Tomo rolled her eyes and scoffed, sauntering back over to her desk and called over her shoulder, “I still think it should be something cooler!”

“No one else agrees with you, Tomo.” Yomi called after her only to have Tomo turn around and stick her tongue out at her. Osaka was still nodding slowly and turned towards Chiyo.

“We’ve learnt a lot today, Chiyo…” She pat her on the shoulder and left for her desk too.

Meanwhile, still stood but a few feet away, Kaorin continued to sob and go through horrifyingly tragic scenarios in her head.

She hadn’t heard anything that was said.

**1 year later**

“Pst. Yo. Osaka…”

Osaka looked up from her desk despite there being nothing on it for her to be looking at, “Yeah, Tomo?”

Tomo looked around in what was supposed to be a discrete manner but it didn’t really work, “You know what I noticed?” She whispered, and that term is used lightly.

“What? What’s up, Tomo?”

“You ever notice how… we don’t know Kagura’s first name?”

Osaka thought for a minute before her eyes widened in realisation and she looked back up at Tomo who was leaning against her desk, “Gosh, you’re right, Tomo!”

A few desks away, Yomi heard everything and let out a strained sigh.

“God… _damn it_ …”


End file.
